BOSTON – Officials are scheduled to gather at noon on Tuesday for a public event at the UMass Club, 225 Franklin St., Boston, to introduce the new Northeast Climate Science Center at the University of Massachusetts. The Amherst-based center was established last year to focus on how climate change affects ecosystems, wildlife, water and other resources

In October 2011, the federal government awarded a $7.5 million grant to the University of Massachusetts to create the Northeast Climate Science Center, which will study how climate change affects ecosystems, wildlife, water, and other resources from Maine to Missouri. The Amherst center is among eight national climate centers created to study the effects of climate change.

Today's session in Boston is expected to include information about the initiative and will feature various special guests, including state Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan, state Commissioner of Energy Resources Mark Sylvia, among others.

UMass officials expected to attend include Richard Palmer, Curt Griffin and Raymond Bradley, all professors at the Amherst campus who will serve as climate investigators for the project. Palmer is head of civil and environmental engineering at UMass, Bradley is director of the Climate System Research Center and Griffin is professor of wildlife ecology and conservation and co-director of the university's environmental sciences program.

The five-year grant will sponsor research at UMass-Amherst as well as at institutions in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Massachusetts.